McLaren will need to be 'clever' - Alonso

Fernando Alonso says McLaren will have to be clever with its strategy if he is to score his first points of 2015 at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Alonso will start the race from 13th position on the grid but reckons that McLaren will need to adopt an alternate approach if he is to gain places in the race.

"I was happy with my lap and I think this is the best qualifying position we could have expected today," he said.

"I expect to be starting 13th, owing to Max’s [Verstappen] likely penalty, so, after a tough day for the team, with my engine change this morning, and me missing most of FP3, and then the disappointment of running only one car in qualifying, I think P13 is the best news of the day.

"Hopefully tomorrow we can have a much better day, with a smooth race and both cars finishing with no problems. Montreal always seems to provide good races with lots of action, a few Safety Cars, reliability issues for everybody, and so on, since it’s a very demanding circuit on brakes, gearboxes and other components too.

"You have to stay focused until the very last lap, because anything can happen.

"Our top speed on the straights will be our main concern tomorrow, so we’ll try to do something clever in terms of strategy and tyre management in order to compensate for that and try to get some points."